Rebecca Alvarez

LCSW, MEd Psychotherapist

Rebecca Alvarez, LCSW, MEd is a Clinical Social Worker whose practice is informed by her social location as a queer, mixed-race ciswoman. Her goal is to build relationships that foster growth and heal trauma and harm. She received a dual degree in Social Work and the education of Human Sexuality at Widener University after attaining her BA in Museum Education at the New School University. Her approach draws from many modalities, and most heavily from Relational Therapy. Relational psychotherapy is a meaningful and active therapy model for working with individuals who suffer with emotional, psychological, and relational distress. It is built from the belief that as people, we make meaning from our connections with our inner self, other people, and our environment and are able to use the relationship built in therapy to investigate relationships with others and the self. Other modalities that are drawn upon may include Feminist, Psychodynamic, Transpersonal, Narrative, Mindfulness-Based (MBCT), Internal Family Systems, and Emotionally Focused Therapy. Areas of expertise include working with gender, sexuality, and trauma after extensive work with gender non-conforming/transgender individuals, LGBTQ communities, those with HIV, non-traditional/kinky relationships, those engaged in sex work, and medical communities.

Guiding values for her work include:

Social Justice Every person has the same right to justice; the lack of this effects individual and community mental health

Multicultural Effective therapy integrates an expectation of and curiosity around a person’s multiple cultural influences

Feminist Power and privilege is shared as much as possible; you are the expert of your experience

Personhood Love, belonging, and worthiness are a birthright, not something to earn

Trauma-Informed People who have experienced trauma have a greater need for emotional and physical safety in therapy- this is done through a number of active techniques shared when appropriate